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Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Last weekend was Canadian Thanksgiving and I baked my first ever pumpkin pie for the occasion!

As a French national, pumpkin pie is a very foreign concept to me, so I had to research how to go about this. It turns out there are a gazillion recipes. Some use sweetened condensed milk, some use cream, the spice blend varies from baker to baker… I chose to use sweetened condensed milk because, well, I just LOVE the stuff! I also made it my own by adding some cloves, vanilla extract and allspice.

RECIPE:
- preheat your oven at 350F
- roll out the pie crust and place it in a pie dish, trim to size, line it with parchment paper, baking weights (I used rice that I keep and reuse especially for this) and blind bake crust for 30 min 350FNote: keep the trimmings, they may come in handy to doctor the crust back into shape if the dough shrinks during blind baking!
- when the crust has baked for 30 minutes, let it cool at room temperature while you prepare the filling. - to make the filling, mix all the remaining ingredients in a bowl and whisk until smooth
- pour into pre-baked crust, lower the oven to 320F and bake another 60 minNote: the pie is ready when a toothpick comes out of the filling dry
- serve at room temperature with freshly whipped cream and enjoy!

Friday, October 10, 2014

The weather is getting crisp and it is soon time for hearty stews and soups.

Last week, I was inspired by a bag of parsnips in my fridge and a can of crushed tomatoes, staring at me from the back of my pantry. I knew I had ground meat in the freezer, so I made mini-meatballs (click here for a recipe) and whipped up an easy stew. Or soup? Stoup?

RECIPE:
- in a large, deep stockpot, melt the butter and saute the meatballs over medium-high heat until golden but not fully cooked and reserve on the side
- in the flavored butter, saute the shallots, celery and garlic over medium heat until soft
- add the crushed tomatoes and beef broth and bring to a simmer, the add the diced parsnips and cook until soft (20-25 minutes)
- about 15 minutes in, add the barley to the simmering liquid and cook for another 10 minutes, or following your barley's cooking instructions
- a few minutes before you are ready to eat, add the precooked meatballs and heat up until completely cooked through
- enjoy!

RECIPE:
- in a large bowl, mix all the ingredients except the flour and mix until well combined
- form into small balls (this batch yielded about 100 mini-meatballs for me)
- dredge in the flour and either use immediately or freeze.Note: freeze the meatballs in a single layer, and transfer in a ziploc bag once they are frozen. This way they will not stick together.
- enjoy!

RECIPE:
- in a large bowl, mix all the dry ingredients, the butter and incorporate the butter quickly with your fingers or a pastry cutter until the flour looks like fresh bread crumbs and the butter is the size of a green peaNote: you want to work really quickly here, with very cold butter. The butter should stay solid as much as possible so that those little nuggets can melt when the crust bakes. That will ensure a flaky crust!
- add the cold sour cream and mix with a spatula
- add ice-cold water by the spoonful (not all at once!) until the dough can hold when pressed togetherNote: the dough should not be sticky here. You just want enough water so you can form a ball.
- shape the dough into two discs, wrap them in plastic and refrigerate at least one hour or until ready to useNote: you can absolutely freeze the dough at this pointNote 2: if you will use this batch for a double-crusted pie, make one of the two discs slightly larger than the other one (the top disc should be a bit bigger)
- after the dough has rested, roll out on a floured surface and make your favorite pie!